Amanda Valdez

September 6 - 28, 2013

opening receptionFirst Thursday, September 5, 6-8pm

" tide of pleasure : double down and tide of pleasure : double down are the deviant, slightly garish, mascots of my exhibition Double Down. Brightly colored, with a tinge of recklessness peaking out of the labor intensive care embedded in the handling of materials, these two pieces are emblems of the process and content currently at the center of my practice. Engineering my surfaces, I interweave paint, canvas, fabric, and thread with images that oscillate between abstraction and representation.

My creative process is propelled forward by questions and seeking answers to the problems I set forth. Doubling creates a chance to do something again. It slows down my engagement with the shapes. When I make a painting or drawing, I find many configurations en-route to selecting the one I rest upon for a given work. Doubling down allows me to loop back to certain points, to certain decisions, and follow a new itinerary or proposition.

Castor y Pollux is a constellation installation. Occupying the sky, these mythological twins inhabit the two worlds of Olympus and Hades. The deep blue of cyanotype is combined with drawings of symmetrical shapes, with an allowance for the imperfection of the hand; hard edge symmetry has no currency in this world. The circular points float and connect the imaginary shape these twins come together to form in the night. In approaching the concept of doubling from multiple locations, this insular configuration of the double harks to the inherent multiples selves and states that create the textural world of our interior emotional landscapes.

i sang a song of home consist of seven works on paper in which an irregular circular shape populates the series, varying widely piece to piece. This haphazard doubling back brings an abstracted face to each day of the week: faces and states that often rise and surface with speed, in an overwhelming capacity. Wet Face, Storm Face, Moon Face: to call out a few, can be a subtle reminder of the paradoxes that govern our experience of being human, the capacity for co-existing gorgeousness, pleasure, mystery, clarity, volatility, and suffering all occurring within the bodies that we call home."